BookTweets

The Moonstone trailer, 2016

The Moonstone has been the subject of numerous adaptations for television, radio and film, including a 1997 film with Keeley Hawes and Greg Wise. The most recent of these was for the BBC in 2016 and starred Terenia Edwards, Joshua Silver and John Edwards. This production aired over five days from Oct-Nov in a mid-afternoon slot as part of the BBC’s #LoveToRead season and was designed to inspire younger viewers to read the book. Writing for the RadioTimes, Alison Graham said of the adaptation:

It’s slow (it’s daytime, where’s the audience going to go? A nightclub?), it’s terrifically arch and it heaves with the kind of things that make hipster primetime drama bosses queasy – shifty-looking, untrustworthy foreigners, in this case mysterious men in turbans, a damp, unsympathetic heroine from a wealthy, privileged background who faints when she’s not being stroppy, a smirking parlour maid and a ruddy great diamond, the moonstone of the title.

Graham concluded the production was “a lovely warming stew that’s fun but also subversive” – in other words, perfect day time television for late autumn weather. (1)

Watch the trailer above, then follow it up by registering for free tickets for our event on 16th May 2018 on Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone – these are free and available on Eventbrite here.